Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording material by an electrophotographic process, such as a laser beam printer (LBP), a copying machine, and a facsimile, and an optical scanning device that is provided in the image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
An optical scanning device uses a semiconductor laser as a light emitting member. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-100128 discuses a configuration in which a plurality of lead pins of a semiconductor laser is inserted into holes in a substrate and electrically connected to a circuit formed on the substrate.
Japanese Patent No. 5132087 discusses an optical scanning device in which a plurality of semiconductor lasers is closely arranged to form a color image.
Suppose that a plurality of semiconductor lasers is configured to be closely arranged as discussed in Japanese Patent No. 5132087 and lead pins are configured to be inserted into holes formed in a substrate as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-100128. In such a case, the respective lead pins of the plurality of semiconductor lasers may be configured to be inserted into a single substrate.
In some cases, the plurality of semiconductor lasers sometimes needs to be arranged even closer to satisfy optical requirements. If the plurality of holes into which the lead pins are inserted is formed in a substrate, the holes need to be separated by a predetermined distance or more in consideration of the arrangement of a circuit pattern on the substrate. The close arrangement of the plurality of semiconductor lasers is thus limited in view of the arrangement of the holes into which the lead pins are inserted. In particular, if a single semiconductor laser includes a plurality of laser emitting units capable of independent control, the number of lead pins formed on the single semiconductor laser increases. In particular, a semiconductor laser including four laser emitting units includes six lead pins. Such semiconductor lasers are even more difficult to closely arrange.